


Secrets in the Night

by goingtothetardis



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Cuddling, Discussions of hostage situation/solitary confinement, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Lucy tells Wyatt what happened after she was taken by Rittenhouse, Nightmares, Prompt Fic, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 04:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14252967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goingtothetardis/pseuds/goingtothetardis
Summary: When Wyatt comforts Lucy after another nightmare, she reveals what happened in the weeks she'd been held captive by Rittenhouse.





	Secrets in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> I received this anonymous prompt on tumblr: "What did they do to you in those six weeks, Lucy?" he asked, not really sure if he wanted to know the answer.
> 
> It was supposed to be a 5-sentence challenge, but it turned into more of a 2k thing, and I think it works better that way. It was a very challenging fic to write, especially with the subject matter, and also because I'm still trying to figure out how to write these two. Capturing their voices was a bit of a challenge, but I hope I managed it. 
> 
> If you have questions about when this is set in S2, I don't really have a specific time. Before the Hollywoodland episode, for sure, but feel free to place it where you feel like it best fits. 
> 
> Immeasurable thanks to SelenaTerna for providing expert beta services for this. It needed a lot of work, and she helped me get it right. 
> 
> Enjoy!!

A shake to his shoulder pulls Wyatt from sleep, and he opens his eyes, blinking blearily at the dark shadow hovering above him. Instantly alert, he jerks back and raises his arm to fend off the intruder.

“Wyatt, stop. It’s me, Jiya,” a woman whispers, and the familiar cadence of her voice soothes his pounding heart as he focuses on Jiya’s face in the dark. 

“What is it? What’s wrong?” he asks, pushing himself up into a sitting position. 

“It’s Lucy. She’s having a nightmare or... something, worse than usual, and I’m scared to wake her. I thought maybe you could…” She trails off, but he understands. “I’ll stay here with Rufus. I think it’ll be better if you’re there instead of me.”

Wyatt nods and hops out of bed when Jiya steps aside. He reaches for the sweatpants placed at the at the foot of his bed and pulls them on. “Thanks. I’ll just… go,” he finishes blandly, and darts out of the room. 

He’d forgone shoes to avoid making any noise in the corridor, and within seconds, he’s at the door to Lucy’s room. After a soft knock (just in case), he turns the door knob and enters the room. The moment he’s inside, Lucy cries out, thrashing frantically from side to side in her bed. 

“Lucy!” Without a second thought, he throws himself onto the bed beside her, quickly wrapping his arms around her struggling form. She stills within seconds, and her eyes fly open with a gasp. 

Wyatt pulls away until she recognizes him, and after tensing for a moment, she relaxes back into his arms, her body still shaking with the remnants of her nightmare. “Hey,” he whispers, brushing some flyaway hair off her forehead, “Jiya said you were having a nightmare. Thought it’d be best if I were here.”

Lucy grasps his shirt as though it’s a lifeline. Eyes closed, she takes a series of deep breaths through her nose and exhales slowly out of her mouth. Wyatt wants to say something to break the silence between them but he’s scared that if he pushes her, she’ll clam up altogether. So instead, he rubs soft circles over her back until her breathing slows and she stops trembling against him.

When they fall into a somewhat companionable, peaceful silence, he knows it’s time to say something.

“What did they do to you in those six weeks, Lucy?” Wyatt asks, not really sure if he wants to know the answer. He’s already asked several times, and each time she’s evaded the question. However, despite his resolve to not ask again, in this moment, it feels more important than ever to try once more.

She’s silent for several long moments, and he thinks that one again she’ll dodge the question, and he’ll simply bear witness to the aftermath of her nightmares and hold her close, soothing the demons in the only way he knows how. 

It’s a surprise to both of them, he thinks, when she speaks. “I went home that night to tell my mom everything.” She swallows. “And she knew. She knew  _ everything. _ She’d known all along. God, I was so blind.” She pauses to push away from him slightly, and he shifts so she can lay her head in the crook of her arm as she turns to her side. She meets his gaze in the dark and reaches for his hand, which he gives readily. 

It’s not new information, the fact that Carol Preston had known about Lucy and the lifeboat. But Wyatt knows Lucy’s not finished when she takes a deep breath to continue.

“As soon as I realized, I grabbed my phone to call you, and tried to leave, but Mom, she–” Lucy takes several deep breaths and squeezes his hand. “–she pulled out a syringe of something and drugged me. I felt something hit my shoulder, and then when I woke up, I was in a… room. A white room. There was no one else there.”

The rage that unfurls inside Wyatt throws his thoughts off kilter. The very  _ thought _ of someone hurting Lucy shocks him with its intensity. That it was her own  _ mother _ makes it somehow worse. His extensive military experience and training tips him off to what likely comes next, but he forces himself to school his features. The only thing that gives away the tension boiling inside him is his iron grip on Lucy’s hand; she rubs her thumb against his in a soothing gesture.

“There were no windows, nothing I could use to… I found out pretty quick there was no way out. The room was actually pretty nice, not at all what I thought a prison would look like: expensive linens, a comfortable mattress, and a bathroom with all the amenities.” She takes a deep breath in, exhaling slowly. “But it  _ was _ a prison. No television or radio, no phones, nothing to communicate with the outside world.  _ With you,”  _ she emphasizes, searching his gaze. “Mom brought me three meals a day... and made terrible small talk with me, like nothing had happened. Like I hadn’t just found out that my parents were… were fucking  _ royalty _ of Rittenhouse… like Rittenhouse –  _ my Mom _ – hadn’t just drugged me and kidnapped me.”

Wyatt’s eyebrow raises at her uncharacteristic cursing. 

Lucy cuts her gaze down to their hands and takes a few shuddering breaths. “At first, I was fine, because I thought you and Rufus would find me. Or do  _ something.  _ Find a way to get Rittenhouse, to save me. But then, a few days – or maybe it was longer, I don’t know – after they kidnapped me, Mom left the newspaper in my room with breakfast. It was the first one I’d seen since I’d been there… It said there was an explosion.” She shudders. “You, Rufus, and the rest of the team were listed as dead.” 

Her breath comes in sharp gasps, and Wyatt pulls her against his body, holding her close in the dark. “Lucy…” he says, starting to regret his curiosity about those damn six weeks. 

“No,” she says against his chest, and wiggles in his arms until her head is free. “It’s time, Wyatt. I need to tell you what happened.”

Without thinking, he kisses her forehead and waits for her to continue. “Okay.”

“The first few days after… after it happened, it was so hard to keep it together. Mom kept coming to visit and asking questions that were supposed to get a reaction out of me. When I didn’t do anything, she’d tell me about Rittenhouse, about my ancestry and heritage, and how important it was that I understand.  _ God, _ Wyatt, I was screaming inside. I was so alone in that room, and thinking of all the ways that you and Rufus, Jiya, Agent Christopher… how you were all killed… the thought that I’d never see  _ you _ again…”

Wyatt gives her a moment to gather her emotions. “So what did you do? What did Rittenhouse do to you?”

With a shrug, Lucy continues. “The first few days after… they were hard, and I almost gave up. I thought you were gone and I didn’t care what they did to me anymore. But then I started thinking about all the places we’d been, the people we’d saved and the events in history that we managed to put right, and I knew that… that even if I was the last man standing, I had to do everything I could to stop Rittenhouse. I thought I was the only one left who had a chance to do it.”

As Lucy tells her story, Wyatt listens with raw admiration to the challenges she faced before they’d been reunited. Her decision to become a double agent; the way she’d slowly convinced her mother of her genuine interest in Rittenhouse; the way she had, slowly but surely, been able to gain at least a minimal trust of some of the Rittenhouse higher-ups. 

“When Mom came to me one day and gave me the chance to go on a trip – a  _ really _ important trip – I thought she was joking,” Lucy explains. “Obviously it was a test of my new-found loyalty to Rittenhouse. I didn’t expect anyone to trust me, but I suppose that being the daughter of Carol Preston and Benjamin Cahill had its perks. She said the choice was mine, but I just knew that if I didn’t go, I wouldn’t get anymore chances. Of course, no one told me any specific details, even though I think Mom wanted to. But Emma...”

For a long moment, she’s silent, and only the sound of their breathing is audible between them. “You know the rest. Up until then, it’d been only Mom to come to me. Six long weeks without any news, thinking you were all dead, alone with my thoughts and all the mistakes I’d ever made. I wasn’t… I wasn’t in a good place. But then you were  _ there,  _ somehow, in that terrible place. You and Rufus, and I realized I’d been so  _ stupid _ to believe Rittenhouse.” 

Despite their position, Wyatt shifts so he can tilt Lucy’s head to face his, and he brushes his thumb against her lip. “Lucy, you’re not stupid. You’re the last thing from stupid. You’d been held hostage  _ in solitary confinement _ by Rittenhouse for six weeks, and you had no reason to believe we were still alive. No one had tried to rescue you, at least to your knowledge, and when you’re alone with nothing but your thoughts for so long… When you’re in that kind of situation, it’s easy for the mind to torment you… to make all your doubts and fears real.”

Lucy casts her gaze to the side, and a tear trails down her cheek, landing on his arm. 

“Lucy,” he says, softly commanding her attention again. “You are  _ incredible;  _ so smart and strong, and you did what you had to do to survive. That’s all. You’re here, now. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone take you away again.”

Searching his gaze for a moment, Lucy’s brow furrows in concentration, but then her lips are on his. It’s a short kiss, a soft caress, and he’s too surprised to even respond before she pulls away. However, the brief touch of her lips against his stokes the flame deep inside his heart that pulls him ever closer to this woman beside him.

Besotted as he is, he can’t keep the smile from spreading across his face, but when Lucy’s is barely a hint of her usual smile full of life, it pulls him abruptly back to the present. He brushes a few hairs off her forehead, considering what to say next. 

Lucy speaks before his thoughts order themselves. “Can we just… keep this between us for now? I mean, maybe I should tell Rufus, because he’s part of this.” She gestures between them. “I think he deserves to know, but maybe not… everyone.” 

“Yeah, I agree. Tell him what you feel comfortable with, and no matter what, I’ll be there. I’ll even hold your hand if you want.” His lips quirk up as he teases her, trying to lighten the mood, and he sighs in relief when her face lifts in a more genuine amusement.

“Will you stay, Wyatt?” Lucy asks, lightly fingering his t-shirt. “I love Jiya, but she’s not really– I mean, I’d rather have–” She huffs a sigh. “I’d rather have you.”

Wyatt scoots closer to Lucy as she lifts the blanket up to invite him under, and they rearrange themselves so he’s spooning her from behind. Her body fits perfectly against his. “I’m  _ absolutely _ sure Rufus won’t mind sleeping with his girlfriend tonight. Or any other night,” he adds, attempting to keep any hint of hope out of his voice. 

They snuggle together, wrapped up peacefully in each other’s arms, and a thought passes through his mind before he drifts off to sleep. “Thanks for telling me,” he says, grinning softly at her mumbled hum, in what he assumes is a reply. 

For now they’ll rest.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to know what you think! Comments are very welcome! :)
> 
> Find me at goingtothetardis.tumblr.com!


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